The Begining
Amazed, a boy watched, as the disintegrating pieces of the monster fell to the ground. Shreds of the energy that had come out of the white cloaked man still swirled around the immediate vicinity, bathing it in a surreal glow. It had all happened so damn fast, him dying, the chain on his chest, the appearance of the monster, followed by the mysterious man that shot something out of the palm of his hand. It all seemed like a bad dream, but somehow, a voice in the back of his head continued to remind him that it was all real, no matter how unbelievable it seemed. As he thought back to the encounter, he realized why he was so convinced that it was all real. The fear that had struck him when the monster appeared, it had been unlike anything he’d ever felt before. It had made a chill run straight through his bones, made his mind go blank, it had even numbed his entire body. “Are you all right?”, The man in the white cloak asked. “I think so, yes, except for the fact that I’m dead I believe, I’m quite all right.” “Well, dying is kind of inevitable when faced with a hollow of this strength, especially when you’re alive”. “Is that what that thing was called? A hollow? Never heard of it, what are they, some sort of evil spirits?” “It doesn’t surprise me that you haven’t heard of them, they can’t be seen by normal humans, so naturally, there aren’t lot of people that know about them and those that do wisely keep their mouths shut. As for the other question, well, they’re somewhat like evil spirits, except that they were once normal souls, like you are, except they got caught up with something happening in the real world, preventing them from passing on to the Soul Society, the place where we guide all souls to, causing him to lose his hart and transform in what you just saw.” “I see, I think I can understand that explanation”. “Excellent, that means I won’t have to draw it out for you”, the man grinned. “I have one question though, if that was a bad spirit, or hollow as you called it, and I’m a normal spirit, then what does that make you?”. “Me? I’m a Shinigami, a Death God, we guide souls to Soul Society and purify hollows, sort of like the guardians of the souls.” As the boy watched the last shreds of the strange energy dissipate, he saw the shinigami draw his sword again. “What’s wrong? Is there another hollow nearby?” “No, it’s just that I need to guide you to Soul Society.”, the man smiled, “don’t worry, it won’t hurt. And when you get there, make sure you report to the Shinigami Academy right away. I’ve got a feeling you’ve got quite a bit of potential. Just tell them Masaru Furinji sent you, they’ll let you in.” “I will”, the boy said, just as the shinigami let the hilt of his sword tap slightly on his forehead. “Oh, before I forget, boy, what’s your name?” the man in the white cloak asked. “It’s Ryusei, Arashi Ryusei”, the boy said as he was enveloped by a soothing blue light '''Arriving in Soul Society ''' As Ryusei opened his eyes, he noted that he wasn't in the outskirts of Tokyo anymore. Instead, he found himself in, what seemed to be, a medieval style city. He noticed people wearing traditional clothing and when he looked at himself, he found that he too, was wearing the same clothes as all the other people. "So much for my good sense of fashion", he grumbled. Slowly, he stood up, only to fall down right away, his stomach growling as a starved hyena. Muttering, he got up again and tried to properly take in his surroundings. He noticed row after row of houses, people walking in and out all the time. All wearing more or less the same style of clothing, though in a variety of colours. Suddenly, he noticed a stall out of the corner of his eye. "Great", he thought by himself, "I sure hope that guy has something to eat, because I'm starving here". As he made his way towards the stall, he noticed that people that came too close started shaking and immediately shied away from him. One even let out a stifled cry when she came a little too close to him, followed by her collapsing to the ground. This of course, caused quite a bit of people to turn their heads towards him. Immediately, some people ran towards the girl, helping her on her feet, and taking here into one of the houses. Suddenly, he noticed an old man approaching him. "So you're the cause of this disturbance", the old man said in an angry tone, "what do you think you're doing, radiating all that reiatsu all over the place?". "Reiatsu, what's that? I'm sorry, but I only just arrived here about five minutes ago, so I don't know anything about this place or all these strange things. The only thing I was told, was to report to the Shinigami Academy. But right now, all I care about is to get some food, because I'm hungry as heck" "That doesn't surprise me, with all that reiatsu you're radiating. Here, take this, it'll get rid of your hunger.", the man said while throwing some bread over to him. He opened his mouth to say something else, but he was cut short by several shinigami appearing on the rooftops of several nearby buildings. "So you're the cause of that massive disturbance here", the largest of the group said. "He doesn't look like much eh guys", one of the smaller shinigami spat. Ignoring the comment, the larger one, obviously the leader of the group, jumped down towards Ryusei. "What's your business here kid?", he asked. "I was sent here by a man named Masaru Furinji, he told me to report to the Shinigami Academy as soon as I got here, but I have no idea where to start looking for it", he answered, trying his hardest not to be unnerved by the man's presence. "I see", he frowned, "well, I can believe why Yoshikune Taichō would want to recommend you to the academy, but nevertheless, we'll have to check that. Please wait here for a while. Oi, Akira, contact headquarters right away, ask them about Yoshikune Taichō recommending some kid named, what's your name kid?" "Ryusei, Arashi Ryusei". "Ask them if he recommended some kid called Arashi Ryusei for the academy, and hurry it up a bit, we don't have all day. "Yes sir", one of the shinigami shouted and immediately began chanting while painting some symbols on his arms. "Net of black and white, 22 bridges, 66 peerless domains, footprints, distant thunder, crest of the mountains, volatile earth, enshroud by night, sea of clouds, blue formations, rise into the towering circle and charge across the heavens. Bakudō No. 77, Tenteikuura!", the patterns on his arms seemed to flow out of his fingertips, a glowing rectangle appearing in the air as he held his hands in front of him. Lighting seemed to shoot out of it, causing all of the other people to run into their homes, screaming at the sight of the shinigami performing the technique. "Message relayed sir, now we just have to wait for the reply", the man said as the glowing form in the air faded. "Knowing them, that could take a …", the man suddenly froze in mid-sentence. "Bloody hell, sir, I've received a reply from headquarters, we are to escort the new trainee to the Academy immediately. There he'll be assigned a tutor from one of the senior year, she'll be waiting for us at the main gate." Ryusei watched several of the people spy on them as the shinigami gathered around him. "Here kid", the man said as he held out his hand, "hang on tight, we're going to hurry towards the academy right now." As he grabbed the man's outstretched hand he felt several other shinigami grabbing his clothes tightly. He was about to ask why, but immediately felt himself being pulled forward at an insane speed. The surroundings turning into nothing more than a blur. They landed right in front of another large complex. Noting that they were alone, the leader of the group cursed. "Listen kid, we've still got stuff to do, so stay here and make sure you don't run off all right? Someone will come to pick you up in a short while, so don't do anything stupid." Ryusei nodded, he wasn't so stupid as to do something like that. He'd barely finished his gesture and the shinigami had vanished again. "How the heck do they do that?", he asked himself. He looked up at the sky, a slight breeze flowing through his hair. "I'm really dead aren't I", he sighed. "Oh well, better make the best of this Shinigami stuff" He could feel it would be something special, if he were to be able to learn all the things those guys had done. He had felt himself feeling lighter, stronger, faster, the moment he'd gotten here. He had been quite strong already, he was well known for his prowess in several martial arts in the real world, but here, it seemed as he could bring them out even better. Since he didn't have anything better to do, he started to study his environment again. The academy was constructed out of white stone, topped with an orange roof. Orange plates decorated the walls, and the whole building was draped in the style of an old temple or something like it. The whole building had a calming aura to it though. At the same moment, he suddenly realized something. While it was cool to have powers like that Shinji dude, he also shuddered at the thought of having to learn it all by going to an academy. He'd never really liked going to school, though he had a feeling that this time, it wouldn't be quite like his school when he was still alive. "Sorry I'm late", a voice suddenly came out of nowhere. Ryusei started looking around to find the source of the voice, only to see a girl appear out of thin air right in front of his nose. Instinctively he jumped back, only to have the girl drag him down in her fall. Quickly, he adjusted his stance and put an arm around the girl's waist to keep her from falling face down on the stone floor. "Drats, I really need to work on my shunpō some more, I just keep on losing my balance." "Are you all right?", Ryusei asked, letting his arm slide from her waist when he was sure she had regained her balance. "Are you the new guy?", she asked, ignoring his question, " heeee, you're pretty cute", she smiled as she shamelessly stared at him, taking every detail, his brown eyes, mid-length brown hair, angular face and perfect body, she didn't miss even a single detail, " and your reiatsu is pretty good for someone fresh from the living world. "This is the Shinigami Academy as you already know, and it's where all wannabe shinigami come to learn techniques and how to control their power, so that one day, they might become worthy shinigami. This takes six years, though quite a lot of the students drop out before they finish their studies, or they just take longer. You're lucky that you have a recommendation from Masaru taicho, it means that you can skip the entrance exam, which usually filters out around three quarters of the applicants. Well, judging by the reiatsu you're letting out, I'd say you shouldn't have all too much trouble in getting through the academy. But stay on your toes, most seniors don't really like the idea of someone skipping the entrance exam and most of the years here." Anyway, we've lost enough time already, we better get going right away, I'm sayuri by the way, Sayuri Sagara", she smiled. As she said this, she grabbed his hand and started dragging him inside. Still overwhelmed by the sudden appearance of the girl, he could do nothing but be dragged along with her, into the Academy.